Flavonoids as Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals: Recent Advances

In the last few decades, there has been wide-ranging research on different bioactive compounds and their nutritional benefits for humans. Among the bioactive compounds, phenolic compounds have been investigated extensively in terms of their contribution toward potential health benefits. Flavonoids are considered an important group of phenolic compounds exhibiting various health promoting benefits. These are the secondary metabolites that are derived from plant parts, which cannot be physiologically synthesized by humans or animal and are only attained through food consumption. Hence, they are incorporated in different food products to include in the diet of humans and animals, wherein the average consumption of flavonoids varies between 34.5 and 897 mg/day. Flavonoids are regarded as functional food attributed to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic, and obesity preventing properties. This chapter deals with the recent advances in the extraction processes and uses of flavonoids as a potential functional food and nutraceutical. It also demonstrates the increase in the research done in the past few decades on flavonoids and the trend expected in the future.